Timeline for Is there some fundamental limitation that would prevent steam-powered rockets from reaching space?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 2, 2020 at 12:06 | vote | accept | uhoh | ||
| Feb 25, 2020 at 16:24 | comment | added | Bob Jacobsen | The classic “steam powered rocket” is actually loaded with high temperature, high pressure liquid water. When pressure is released at launch, the liquid flashes to vapor steam which expelled as a dense (and compared to combustion rockets, slow) stream. | |
| Feb 25, 2020 at 15:34 | comment | added | uhoh | @CarlWitthoft the internet is chock-full of places where people can go and write say bad things about other people. Space SE is thankfully not one of them 99% of the time. it stands out here like a sore thumb and looks gauche. | |
| Feb 25, 2020 at 15:00 | comment | added | uhoh | @CarlWitthoft I'm not sure you are describing the situation correctly. I thought the reaction mass was steam, not water. Can you cite something that demonstrates that the reaction mass was in fact liquid? Can you also refrain from calling people "stupid" who've recently died in the process of trying to make a living? Thanks! | |
| Feb 25, 2020 at 14:56 | comment | added | Carl Witthoft | @uhoh I think most people refer to a "steam engine" only when it's the expansion from liquid to gas phase that produces the force. If this guy was using steam as the propellant he was doing things stupidly( well, that's a given). Using steam to drive some other propellant is about the same as any child's plastic rocket where you use water as propellant and compressed air as the driving force. | |
| Feb 25, 2020 at 14:32 | comment | added | uhoh | I'm not a rocket scientist nor do I play one on TV. So then would a "steam powered rocket" only be a rocket that was preloaded with steam? I mean, it can also be a nuclear-thermal or whatnot but does that mean that it can no longer be called "steam-powered" even though the reaction mass is steam? I'm just out of my depth here and probably missing something that's obvious to everyone else... | |
| Feb 25, 2020 at 12:21 | comment | added | Christopher James Huff | That wouldn't be a "steam powered rocket" any more. A nuclear-thermal rocket can use water as propellant and get performance toward the low end of the chemical rocket range, since the exhaust is the same as a hydrolox rocket with suboptimal propellant ratio (stoichiometric rather than fuel-rich), while having lower temperature. The "nuclear lightbulb" mentioned requires cryogenic hydrogen to keep the "lightbulb" from melting. You might get it to work with water, but you'll have lower exhaust temperatures. | |
| Feb 25, 2020 at 12:11 | history | edited | Christopher James Huff | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Feb 25, 2020 at 3:32 | comment | added | uhoh | I see, it's because the current design has a strong and therefore heavy pressure vessel and all pressure is stored. As mentioned in this comment perhaps an onboard source of high heat generating pressure and temperature during flight could address this if it weren't also just as heavy. | |
| Feb 25, 2020 at 3:28 | history | edited | uhoh | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Feb 25, 2020 at 3:24 | history | answered | Christopher James Huff | CC BY-SA 4.0 |